Mirza Subeliani to be Released from Custody Soon

Mirza Subeliani, a former employee of the Prosecutor’s Office who was detained on charges of failing to inform the authorities of a tragic Khorava Street murders, will be released from custody soon. He will leave the prison on July 8.

Mirza Subeliani was detained on June 9, 2018, regarding the notorious Khorava street murders - a bloody conflict among the school students at Khorava Street in Tbilisi. Subeliani is an uncle of Mikheil Kalandia, the key witness of the case. He was initially charged with failure to report crime and exertion of influence on a witness. However, according to the March 4 statement of the Tbilisi City Court, the judge pronounced sentence under a lighter charge of concealing the crime. According to the judge, Mirza Subeliani was found guilty of concealing a crime - Article 375 of the Criminal Code of Georgia.

Accordingly, Subeliani was sentenced to 1 year and 1 month of imprisonment.

Mirza Subeliani was detained following mass public protests over the Khorava street murder of December 2017, which left two teenagers – Davit Saralidze and Levan Dadunashvili – stabbed to death.

Davit Saralidze died in hospital due to multiple wounds in his back, while Levan Dadunashvili died immediately.

On May 31, 2018, Tbilisi City Court charged two minors: one for the premeditated murder of Dadunashvili and the second for the attempted murder of Saralidze; however, the court could not reveal the murderer of Saralidze, which sparked mass protests in the capital organized by his father, Zaza Saralidze.

Georgia’s Chief Prosecutor Irakli Shotadze resigned amid the protest rallies.

Giorgi Kvirikashvili, who was the Prime Minister of Georgia at a time, ordered a re-investigation of the case to find answers to many unclear questions.

On June 3, 2019, the Court of Appeals announced that the sentence of one of the convicts (G. B.), who was found guilty of the premeditated murder of Levan Dadunashvili, had been reclassed as “aggravated” and that he was sent to custody for 11 years and three months.

The sentence of the Second convict G. J. had also been reclassed and he was sent to custody for 11 years and three months for the premeditated murder of Saralidze.

The next day, Georgia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs arrested the key witness of the case, Mikheil Kalandia and on June 5th he was officially charged for the murder of Saralidze.

By Ana Dumbadze